Sweet Comfort
by imdrowninginfootwear
Summary: Caroline catches Tyler in bed with Hayley and ends up alone drowning her sorrows in alcohol when Klaus arrives and attempts to cheer her up. Klaroline, One-shot


Caroline ran out the front door of Tyler's house with tears streaming down her cheeks. She couldn't believe that she had been stupid enough to let Tyler and Hayley convince her to pretend that she had broken up with Tyler over them just to trick Klaus. Especially while the whole time they really had been cheating and that had just made it easier for them to sneak around behind her back.

The worst thing was that she was starting to feel bad about tricking Klaus of all people, and lying to him. She now knew exactly how he must have felt every time that she had used his affection for her against him and it didn't feel good.

Caroline knew that she needed someone, but Bonnie was off learning to use her magic again, while Elena was off with Damon, and Stefan was already depressed enough that she didn't need to be dumping her problems on him. That left only Jeremy and Matt. Jeremy had that weird hunter thing going on so going near him was not a good idea and Matt was busy watching him so that Jeremy wouldn't go off looking for Elena.

Caroline desperately tried to wipe the tears from her face, but it was no use since there was a constant flow of new ones to replace the ones that she had dried. She decided to go to the Mystic Grill knowing that she was going to need a hell of a lot of alcohol, especially if she couldn't talk to anyone about it.

* * *

As she sat at the bar, drowning her sorrow with her fourth consecutive shot of tequila, Caroline sensed him enter the grill. She hated that she could immediately tell when he was nearby without so much as a glance. She hated how she now knew that he was walking up behind her.

"Go away," She muttered before downing a fifth shot. "I'm already having a bad enough night, I really do not need to listen to you and your egotistical mind games."

Klaus took in Caroline's puffy eyes, disheveled hair and five empty shot glasses, then slowly sat down in the chair next to her without a word.

"I said go away," Caroline said fiercely, turning to glare into his eyes. She only felt worse when she saw the concern in them, concern for her. His usual smirk was replaced by an uncharacteristic frown.

She turned away and let her head fall to the bar as she felt tears welling up in her eyes once again.

"I don't think that I'm the one you're mad at, love" Klaus said gently.

"No, you aren't. It's Tyler and-" Caroline cut herself off mid sentence and lifted her head to glare at Klaus. "Actually, no. I am mad at you."

"Me? What did I do?" Klaus asked, looking genuinely shocked.

"You turned Tyler into one of your stupid little hybrids," Caroline said with a fire in her eyes and venom in her tone. "If you hadn't made him a hybrid, and hadn't made him do all of those stupid things, then he never would have had to break the stupid sire bond. And he never would have met stupid Hayley. And I never would have walked in on the two of them in bed. And I wouldn't feel like a complete and utter moron for letting them convince me to pretend that me and Tyler had broken up so that they could keep breaking the sire bond on your stupid hybrids! And why do I feel bad about lying to you to protect them when you're the bad guy who started all of this?"

Caroline was surprised when instead of yelling or slamming his fist on the bartop at the news of Tyler and Hayley's plan and the original fake breakup, Klaus simply said, "Oh."

"That's it?" Caroline asked practically in hysterics. "I tell you all of that and all that you have to say is 'oh'? You're not going to even yell at me for being a part of the plan? Or say anything?"

"No," Klaus said, appearing to be confused that she would even think that. "If I had known that turning Tyler would lead to this, then I never would have done it."

Caroline could see the honesty in his eyes.

"Yeah, but only because he's trying to mess with your hybrids," Caroline muttered, looking down at the bar. "And don't pretend that you aren't thrilled that we broke up."

"I'm not," Klaus said, gently lifting her chin up until she was staring into her eyes. "And the reason that I wouldn't have turned him isn't because he's messing with my hybrids, but because he's messing with my Caroline."

A combination of something in his gaze and the sweetness in his voice kept her from angrily calling him out on calling her 'his Caroline', which she most certainly was not.

Caroline looked back down and this time Klaus moved his hand away and allowed her to continue to look away.

"Why was I stupid enough to even think that Tyler actually cared about me?" Caroline asked as she took another shot. "Why am I always stupid enough to believe that guys care about me when really I'm just the backup plan every single time."

"You aren't stupid, love," Klaus told her. "They are for not seeing what they're missing. I can't imagine why when given the option of you, anyone would even have to second guess themselves before choosing."

"They don't," Caroline responded. "They don't think twice about leaving me for a chance at someone better."

"You think some werewolf slut is better than you?" Klaus asked, struggling not to laugh at the ridiculousness of that idea.

"Tyler does," Caroline responded, taking yet another shot of tequila.

"Tyler's an imbecile who wasn't good enough for you," Klaus responded seriously.

"And you think that you are good enough for me?" Caroline asked, clearly unimpressed.

"I like to pretend that I am," Klaus said with a slight smirk. "But I know that I'm not. No one is."

"Why do you like me so much?" Caroline asked curiously.

"Why wouldn't I?" Klaus asked. "You're smart, gorgeous, caring, and you're certainly interesting to be around."

Caroline laughed humourlessly, "Yeah, real interesting. What will Caroline have a breakdown over today? Will it be a dress? Elena? Tyler? Some stupid event that means nothing to anyone else? Or will it be absolutely nothing?"

"You really don't see how strong you are," Klaus said. It was an observation, not a question.

"Vampire strength has nothing to do with emotional strength," Caroline shot back.

"I was talking about emotional strength," Klaus told her.

"Yeah, I'm the queen of emotional stability," Caroline said with a sarcastic snort. "That's why I have the oh so attractive overemotional look going while I'm getting drunk with _you_." She hadn't meant for that to come out quite as harsh as it had.

Klaus chuckled a little and said, "Even like this, you're still the most ravishing girl in the room." Caroline rolled her eyes, although at that point his compliment meant more than she could understand. "Yet for some reason you underestimate yourself so much."

"We can't all be as full of ourselves as you are," Caroline commented.

Klaus smirked a little, glad that Caroline was still herself enough to keep up her usual banter.

"Ninety-eight percent of girls in the world would crumble after half of what you've been through," Klaus told her. "And there must be something wrong with your mirror if you don't know how beautiful you are."

Caroline could feel the logical part of her brain shutting down as an embarrassed smile formed on her lips.

"There's the smile that I've been looking for," Klaus said with a grin of his own.

"Why are you being so nice to me after I told you that I was part of yet another plan against you and that I used your emotions against you _again_?" Caroline asked, staring into his eyes with honest curiosity.

"Because I can't be mad at you," Klaus responded truthfully. "And I've kind of gotten used to being used by now.. In a sick way I kind of like it, convincing myself for even a few minutes that maybe, just maybe, you could like me back."

Caroline was surprised by his blatant honesty and stared into his blue eyes, amazed that he had his guard down this much and wasn't afraid that this wasn't just another act. She was even more amazed that he was letting her see every emotion that he was feeling in his eyes. And that he wasn't even the slightest bit angry at her for what she had done, or the way she had been treating him all night.

Caroline soon found that she couldn't tear her eyes away from his, she was completely entranced by them. She couldn't even stop herself as she slowly felt herself moving towards him in an attempt to kiss him.

Apparently he didn't have the same problem as he quickly said, "Caroline, don't."

Caroline pulled back and shot him a confused and hurt look that made Klaus's dead heart ache.

"Even you won't kiss me," Caroline said, feeling fresh tears making their way down her cheeks. She downed one last shot of tequila before turning to leave.

"Wait," Klaus said, grabbing hold of her shoulder.

"What?" Caroline asked and turned around, full blast crying.

"Believe me I want to kiss you more than anything right now," Klaus said, staring into her eyes with a look of pain. "And I'm barely stopping myself right now, but I can't take advantage of you like that." Caroline's head tilted to the side a little. "You've been drinking and you just had your heart stomped on. And if I get to kiss you, I want it to be a real kiss that you want. Not a kiss that you would have given to the first guy to call you pretty that you'll regret in the morning."

Caroline said nothing to him, but stood there continuing to cry from the rejection.

"Come on, let's get you home," Klaus said, wrapping his arm around her waist and steering her towards the door.

Caroline made no effort to resist, and before long she was sitting in her driveway unbuckling the seat belt on the passenger side of Klaus's car.

He walked her to the door and was about to turn around to go back to his car when she grabbed onto his wrist. Klaus stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at her.

"Will you stay with me?" Caroline asked quietly.

"Of course, sweetheart," Klaus responded as he followed her into the house.

* * *

When Caroline woke up the next morning, she was a little surprised that Klaus hadn't disappeared at some point during the night. Instead he was laying next to her on the bed with his arm wrapped around her protectively while her head rested on his chest.

"Good morning, love," Klaus said quietly once he noticed that she was also awake.

"Morning," She said back, she wanted to make herself get up and stop cuddling with Klaus, but she was unable to actually force herself to do so.

Klaus was more than a little surprised when she continued to lay there, but didn't dare to point it out.

"Are you feeling any better?" Klaus asked instead.

"Surprisingly, yes," Caroline said, rolling off of him and then laughing a little.

"What?" Klaus asked, chuckling a little despite the fact that he was clearly not in on the joke.

"That's embarrassing," Caroline said through her laughter.

"What?" Klaus asked with a smile.

"I drooled all over you while I was asleep," She said.

Klaus looked down at his grey shirt and sure enough there was a small puddle of drool by where her head had been resting.

"I knew that I'd get you to drool over me eventually," Klaus said with a smirk.

"That is such a cheesy joke," Caroline said, yet she continued to laugh loudly at it as she playfully hit him in the chest.

"Then why are you laughing so hard?" Klaus asked with a smirk.

"Because it's so cheesy that it's hilarious," Caroline responded, finally managing to calm her laughter down. She didn't know how she could be in this good of a mood less than twenty four hours after walking in on Tyler and Hayley together.

"Cheesy's kind of my middle name," Klaus said with a smirk.

"Niklaus Cheesy Mikaelson?" Caroline asked. "Your parents must have really hated you."

Seeing the giant grin on Caroline's face after all of the pain that Klaus had seen on it just the night before made his heart feel like melting. Especially since he knew that he was the one that had provoked the beaming smile. He stared at her, feeling a lopsided smirk on his face as he leaned closer to her.

Klaus's lips pressed gently against hers and he was amazed when instead of pulling away, she began to kiss him back with her impossibly soft lips. The kiss intensified and soon Caroline rolled them over so that she was on top of him, her mouth opening to let his tongue in. As they kissed, her hands slid up his arms to tangle themselves in his hair. Meanwhile his hands tightly gripped the exposed section of skin just above her hips, where her shirt had slid up a little as they had rolled.

When they begrudgingly separated several minutes later, there was a ridiculous grin spread across each of their faces. That had by far been the best kiss of Caroline's life, clearly the years that Klaus had been around to practice had more than paid off.

"That's probably why they tried to kill me," Klaus responded in a loud whisper as he leaned back against the headboard with his arms wrapped around his Caroline.

Caroline rolled her eyes a little at this as she almost felt her dead heart fluttering in her chest.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! This was just a quick one shot that crawled into my brain, I hope that you enjoyed it! :D**


End file.
